Adama Traore changed the game once again as Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolverhampton Wanderers narrowly beat Slovan Bratislava in the Europa League.
Slovan Bratislava coach Jan Kozak has admitted that the half-time introduction of Adama Traore changed the game as Wolverhampton Wanderers came from behind to secure a hard-fought Europa League victory in Slovakia on Thursday night, according to The Mail.
After a dreadful start to the season, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have been transformed in the last few weeks. Wolves have won four of their last five games in all competitions, including a famous 2-0 triumph over champions Manchester City on their own soil, and claimed their second victory of the Europa League group stage in Bratislava despite falling behind to an early Andraz Sporar goal.
Not for the first time, the jet-heeled Traore made a huge impact off the bench, replacing Patrick Cutrone at the interval as Nuno shuffled his pack.
Within 20 minutes of the second half, Wolves had turned a deficit into a lead thanks to strikes from Romain Saiss and Raul Jimenez before hanging onto a valuable three points.
And Kozak has admitted that Nuno’s decision to bring Traore into the action was the turning point.
“Of course I am disappointed because this was a game where we deserved a better result,” he said.
“We made some mistakes and big clubs punish mistakes like that, Wolves did that with two goals.
“At half-time they made some tactical changes (Traore on, Cutrone off and a change in formation) and unfortunately we made some mistakes and were punished.”
Traore is finally justifying his £18 million price-tag at Wolves with his rapid pace down the right hand side giving the Black Country giants a massive boost after a sluggish first half in Slovakia. He’s quickly becoming indispensable.
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